No Dig: Nurture Your Soil to Grow Better Veg with Less Effort

Having recently retired, my wife wanted to try vegetable growing in our small garden. The only real challenge for her, due to spinal issues, was the thought of digging the plot every year.She asked for this book as a Christmas present idea because it advocates “no dig gardening” whereby you just create beds by applying a liberal layer of compost at the start of each growing season. We compost most of our kitchen waste in a compost bin, so this is a good source of material for the project. To start the plot, we have had to spend a fair amount on bags of compost, but hopefully our compost bin will have sufficient capacity to supply material for subsequent years.The results for the season so far have been as good as any from traditional growing methods.Therefore happy wife, which means happy me!…

As a forester and small-holder of just under 3 acres this book was a ‘must have’.The no dig potatoes under straw saved me so much time and effort both at planting and harvesting.Great tips and techniques I will be experimenting with in years to come.

After watching many of Charles Dowding’s Youtube videos, I decided it was time to purchase one of his books in order to further broaden my understanding of his methods so that I could put them into practice on my allotment. He’s written a few books, but after reading many of the reviews, I decided this ‘No Dig’ publication covered all the topics I wished to know more about - and I have to say this book really does tick all the boxes on that score. This really is a lovely publication, it’s been very well written and laid out, it’s easy to read and follow, and it’s illustrated throughout with many superb colour photos and diagrams.No Dig is made up of nearly 300 pages which are broken up into four chapters. Chapter One deals the actual soil and introduces the reader to the concept and benefits of no dig gardening, the importance of compost, natural nutrition, and gives us an overview of soil carbon and structure. Chapter Two is all about deciding what to grow, planning your beds, controlling weeds, building, planting, and maintaining no dig beds, sowing for success, sourcing seeds, making your own compost, and using appropriate tools for the job. Chapter Three covers everything you need to know in regard to the principles of growing vegetables - from the sowing stage through to the harvesting period, and also tells you how to store your various veggies and how to save seed. Chapter Four is an in-depth vegetable and herb directory that fully explains all you really need to know about successfully growing produce that belongs to the pea, bean, cabbage, onion, cucumber, carrot, beet and potato families - in addition to herbs and perennials.I can only speak very highly of this book, so if you wish to join the ever-growing number of folk who are sensibly going the ‘no dig’ gardening route, then look no further than getting yourself a copy of this inspirational book to help you on that journey…..

Read and be converted to no dig .

Got this as starting a no dig allotment. A really informative read for someone new to gardening. In our second year now and it remains our go to reference for tips on how and when to sow seeds and then to transplant. We have enjoyed it so much and found it so useful that have already started to give copies to friends and family

Really lovely book, great information and lots of things to try out up the allotment!

Allotment holders should try this, it's great.I tried it on some of the ground & am now going to convert the rest

Great that there is a detailed section for each common vegetable. I didn't know that following the planting times on the seed packets is not necessarily the best way to grow the veg. Charles takes account of when pests are most active, when a plant is most likely to bolt etc before recommending planting times. Packed full of practical advice. Invaluable reference for no dig veg growing! Ps the yellow cover looked odd in the photos but when you get it, it is a really nice textured paper. Well done Mr Dowding!

Great experienced author. Good authority.

It seems to me we are experiencing a wave of new gardening books written by people presumably stuck at home during the pandemic that decided to try their hand at gardening resulting in many beautiful books with sketchy content. Well, this book is most emphatically not that!! Mr. Dowding has utilized his lifetime of experience growing, experimenting and educating to create a very well designed, readable and enjoyable book. He leads with “no dig” and this and his various works have seriously advanced the case for no dig but it is as much a book about gardening as it is about no dig. I’ve attached a photo of the Table of Contents- you can see what I mean.My growing conditions are far less benign than Mr. Dowding has and where his book stands out for me is he communicates “why” as much as “how” which allows one to translate the techniques to growing conditions much different than his. Reality is there isn’t much translation required except to adjust for frost/planting dates. The book includes broader gardening techniques, practices, specific information on growing specific vegetables, variety information and of course no dig. The book is copiously illustrated with photos and various graphics. My only complaint is that for a $40 book the photos should have better printing quality. They aren’t bad though and I don’t know whether the book actually sells for $40 as I paid much less on Amazon and Chelsea Green Publishing has had it on discount too so not unhappy.

Great book, follow this for everything you need to know, great advice, methods, schedules. Excellent book.

Bien utile pour tout pour jardin.

Another great book from Charles Dowding, the master of no-dig.I really appreciate the "vegetable section" with detailed tips for any of the most productive vegetables in the garden.Buy your copy as soon as possible!